Glazer
Welcome to today’s 2 Guys! Today we’ll be looking at a DC and Marvel book, one a big seller and one less so.
Which would you like to begin with?

Grey
Lets talk Remender.

GlazerSecret Avengers it is.

What happens this issue, Grey?

Grey
Captain America needs to step down from his spot leading the black ops team, but before he does he recruits a few people. One of them Captain Britain, assumes that he’s being brought in to lead. Thing is, this is Hawkeye’s team now, and the dynamic set up between the two is instantly awesome.

Glazer
I agree with the dynamic being great, but Captain Britain… and the team being incompetent… it all felt a bit like the worse parts of the current JLI.

Grey
It felt a lot like the current JLI book to me, with Brian playing Guy Gardner to Hawkeye’s Booster, and then you also have the fact that both teams were put together a grand total of five minutes before their first mission against bad guys that are brand new.

Glazer
I felt like Hawkeye was more Guy in terms of personality, with Brian the boring new Booster.

Grey
It’s a great way to open a team up humbled, but at the same time…half of the team Remender is using were the team he inherited.
I dunno, Guy was the one hassling the appointed leader and talking about how he could do it better because of this that and whatever.
Which is exactly what Brian did to Hawkeye.
Only Hawkeye didn’t take it like Booster did.

Glazer
Guy was utterly obnoxious – just like Hawkeye. Hawkeye is needlessly abrasive. Brian thought he was leader – he didn’t realize it was Hawkeye. Instead of Clint pulling him aside and explaining, he made a scene.

Grey
Yeah, but Brian spent the rest of the issue dressing him down for just being an archer and not being protector of the Omniverse.

Glazer
In fairness, he is just an archer.

Grey
He’s an awesome archer.

Glazer
Yeah… Brian is more than that.

Grey
Who unfortunately is now wearing his movie costume, which makes him into a purple and black version of Green Arrow on Smallville.

Glazer
I don’t like this costume on Hawkeye at all – mostly because the classic was phenomenal.

Grey
I’m just happy to see Brian get some love, he winds up in obscurity way too often for a character that could be used to market titles over seas.

Grey
Steve can be boring sometimes too, I just know that I used to really enjoy Excalibur back in the 90’s and he made a good member of a larger cast.

Glazer
Fair point. So, what about the random villains?

Grey
Oh, I know, but it doesn’t make it any less annoying.
They were completely unstoppable, but really, not as impressive to me as the Cyborg Cabal we saw at the end.

Glazer
The Cabal was interesting – the rest were so generic. I’m also incredibly sick of generic terrorist villains.

Grey
They’re easy to use, you throw them together, give them some moments, kill them when you’re done because nobody else is going to use them.

Glazer
It’s boring and makes me not care.

Grey
They weren’t awesome, but the Cabal looked cool.
My favorite stuff was Hank Pym and the craziness of their new headquarters.

Glazer
word
The Cabal could make the book interesting, but ultimately this is so far a huge step down from Ellis.

Grey
Ellis was doing really great single shot stories, which were awesome after all the crap that came before, but I think the biggest benefit he had to his run was the length of it. He came in, told the stories he wanted to tell, and left before the quality could take a hit.

Glazer
Ellis has proven he can handle longer runs… but also notable here is that Remender has as well. I just feel like he’s taking the wrong tone with this one.

Grey
I’m not saying Ellis struggles with longer runs, just that he came in long enough to do some great work and quit while he was ahead.
Remender I think is trying to not go as dark as he has with Uncanny X-Force, despite the similar tones of the teams, and I think it will work against him because this book should be dark and gritty.

Glazer
I agree there. I dislike this book so far.

Grey
I’m just hopeful it gets better.

Glazer
I trust Remender enough to check again after this arc… but this arc isn’t working for me.

Grey
He needs to establish his own hook,

Glazer
But he’s continuing Ellis and Bru’s story with a new cast.

Grey
It’s not even that new, he dumped War Machine, and Cap for Pym, Hawkeye, and Britain. The core is still there.

Glazer
It’s a half new cast. Beast, Valkyrie and Ant Man remain.

Grey
More than when he took over X-Force and only kept Logan and Warren.

Glazer
True, but the tone remained the same.

Grey
He established his own hook, it became cleaning up the Apocalypse mess.

Glazer
Hook sure, but tone and hook aren’t equal.

Grey
I know, I’m just saying it’s the hook that sells the book.

Glazer
I don’t care if it sells – I care if it’s good. This issue wasn’t good.

Grey
I thought it was average. The art didn’t fit the story he was trying to tell.

Glazer
It was all over the place from the omniverse to the bickering to the terrorists and Cabal… just a mess.

Grey
This is one of the few books where I would call for multiple pencillers based on what’s happening in the book.

Glazer
How about it just slows down a bit?

Grey
That too. He tried to do three issues in one.

Glazer
So, a rating?

Grey
Magic eight ball says…..6/10.

Glazer
I’ll go 4/10. It was below average, but not unreadable.

Glazer
And now on to Grifter!

Grey
Grifter is fun, but obviously getting it’s tone shifted as it prepares to get moved more fluidly in with the other Wildstorm plots.

Glazer
I like Grifter and hate the supporting cast. Could those women be any more just there to be killed?
And what the hell is up with the art? During his escape I had no idea what was going on.

Grey
I hate the women and am glad his girlfriend is gone. I don’t even know the other girls name. Cole has been well defined for what he is, but the supporting cast is just there.
The art just got too dark in this issue and it made it seem more cluttered.

Glazer
So, why isn’t this other girl just Zealot again?

Grey
For the same reason we haven’t seen Spartan or Maul.
They’re trying to roll Wildstorm out slowly, but in this case it may be too slow. Grifter needs a real supporting cast, even if it is just someone like Zealot.

Grey
Expendable characters that just feel expendable don’t cut it. It’s why I have few ties with Suicide Squad.

Glazer
I wouldn’t mind if the cast were developed, but everyone’s just generic.

Grey
Yup, if I knew more about his girlfriend than she was his girlfriend, I would have felt bad for him. As it stands….I think he could do better even with the Daemonite’s wanting to kill him.

Glazer
Exactly.

Grey
And the other girl is just “generic female badass”

Glazer
Which could be so much more just by making her Zealot!

Grey
The supporting cast in Voodoo is stronger, that’s all I really have to say here.

Grey
Despite the faults of the book, it’s still an entertaining read, not phenomenal, but it’s definitely a book I like picking up. I’ll go 6.5/10 here though. It was too quick and cluttered.

Glazer
No, but Voodoo is doing more with its premise.
I’ve got a 4/10 again. It’s fairly average, but the art confusing me takes it down a whole peg.

Grey
Voodoo progresses the story every issue, Grifter does it every few issues.
You know what was a great book this week that I bet nobody reading this checked out?

Glazer
What?

Grey New Mutants.

Glazer
I loved that book, with 1 caveat.

Glazer
Why don’t you tell our readers what happened this issue?

Grey
Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning wrote a book about a girl going on a date with the devil.
During Fear Itself the New Mutants got stuck in Hell, and they made a deal with Mephisto to get out. Magma would go on a date with him. This issue is the pay off of that.

Grey
I’ll be happy if it gets a long term play out, which I expect from DnA.
Obviously he’s playing a lie, but he has a character other than “I’m the devil! I’m evil! I want Spider-Man’s marriage!”

Glazer
Well, he isn’t DC’s Lucifer, you know? He’s pretty well established to enjoy being utterly evil.

Grey
I know, but there’s no reason he can’t be given some depth here. Nobody else will sell it, but that doesn’t mean we can’t enjoy it. Plus, one dimensional evils get boring faster than super terrorists.

Glazer
I disagree with Mephisto. He’s got the whole trickster thing going. If you were reading Marvel’s best book you’d see how fun he can be.

Grey
But he’s not in Amazing Spidey!
…..anymore.

Glazer
Journey into Mystery.

Grey
Daredevil?

Glazer
Kieron Gillen has yet to have a single issue of that title he hasn’t utterly killed.

Grey
Avengers Academy!

Glazer
You need to get the trade. If anything at all in Fear Itself were a quarter as good as JitM, it’d be the best event ever.

Grey
I’ll get the trade, but I just like name dropping my favorite Marvel books.
FANTASTIC FOUR!

Glazer
I’m with you on all your Marvel favorites but Spidey, though I love Ultimate Spidey.

Grey
Amazing has been really good lately, Spider-Island is worth getting in hardcover.

Glazer
I’m not a 616 Peter Parker fan.

Grey
You’ll get some Dan Slott and some Rick Remender if you do, Rick wrote the Venom issues (the hardcover is Amazing and Venom).

Glazer
I didn’t like the Venom solo series and dropped it. I am a Slott fan and will read any non-Spidey he does.

Grey
Tell you what, you get Spider-Island and I’ll get a book of your choosing of equal value, and then we’ll both read and discuss in a future column.
We can call it “Two Guys: THE CHALLENGE”!

Glazer
Deal. Spider Island and Journey into Mystery.
Two events!

Grey
Challenge accepted!
I think we’re both in for some good reading, which I’m going to use to segue into our conclusion.
Let’s talk Sinestro.

Glazer
Sinestro is excellent – I have no idea how Johns writes him as such a likable bastard and I can’t stand Hal. Seriously, when Sinestro is done as GL, so am I.

Grey
I liked the Hal parts of this issue, it was nice and only about a fifth of the book, and he didn’t spend the whole time whining that he wasn’t GL or that Sinestro was his new boss.
The Sinestro stuff, on the other hand, was freaking amazing.

Glazer
I was fine with Hal in such a small dose.

Grey
I love that Johns still has so much he can go back and cover about Sinestro over the last few years that we haven’t seen. It makes me believe that even after Sinestro leaves this book as the main character we could, at the very least, see mini series showcasing some of his grander adventures. Because I really fucking want to see him break this scrubby former hero that Johns debuted here.

Glazer

I have a feeling we’re going to get a few years of Sinestro as an anti-hero.

Grey

I could live with that, I’d also be fine if the move that finally takes Geoff Johns off of Green Lantern is to move him to a Sinestro solo series once Hal gets the book back. Or just let Geoff write both books. That would be good too.

Glazer

Johns is busy with Aquaman and JL and this.

Grey

Yeah, but I imagine Aquaman is going to be for a year before he passes it to someone else so he can get a new third book.

Glazer

I think he stays on Aquaman since it’s selling.

Grey

Flash was a top 3 book.

Glazer

Still top 10, but Flash needs less rehabbing than Aquaman.

Grey

I just want to see Geoff stay long enough to tell his story, because so far Aquaman has been pretty fun.

Grey

Agreed, Aquaman needed a lot of work, but he’s finally getting it and it’s taking nicely.

Glazer

I haven’t liked it, but I get why others do.

Then, I didn’t like Geoff’s Flash either.

Grey

I hated his Flash, it was garbage.

But with Flash he kept telling us to like Barry, here he’s showing us why we should like Arthur.

Glazer

I agree there… but I don’t like Arthur’s plots. And I liked Barry’s. So strange.

Grey

Aquaman isn’t the best book on the market, but it’s entertaining, the leads are likable, and he’s making the most out of the perceptions people have of Aquaman.

Grey

The plots he had on Flash would have been great if he’d executed them better, there were cool ideas there.

Just bad pacing and characterization.

Glazer

Right – on Aquaman I don’t like the ideas.

But love the pacing and characterization.

Grey

Which are what Aquaman is excelling at.

Yeah, they’re exact opposites.

Glazer

Same writer – that’s rare. Guys usually stick with the same strengths and weaknesses.

Grey

Green Lantern has the perfect mash up of the two.

Glazer

Sometimes, yes, and currently, yes.

I hate Hal, remember.

Grey

Justice League just lacks pacing currently

I did for a long time, now I tolerate him but love the book.

Glazer

JL is all over the place. I really don’t like starting with Darkseid.

Grey

It’s an interesting move that I’m not sure is the right call, but after seeing the variants for Earth 2 I’m starting to wonder if Darkseid doesn’t return in a year or two to give us a multiverse crossover.

Glazer

I really hope not.

Grey

If he’s being used to set up future stories where he’s a non-ultra-jobbing big bad, I’m totally cool with that. Darkseid fluctuates way too heavily between awesome bad guy and A list jobber.

Glazer

Darkseid is far easier to do poorly than do well. And Grant’s awesome Darkseid is too fresh.

Grey

Part of why his Darkseid was so good is that it was the first time he hadn’t sucked in years.

Glazer

It was a clever use of him as the ultimate evil.

Grey

Agreed.

I’m just saying if they want to use him as a big bad in the new 52, and this is their way of beginning to build him up, he better be huge to do justice to the awesome that is Darkseid.

Glazer

Him not immediately killing a newly formed JL means, to me, he’s in jobber mode.

About The Author

Grey Scherl

A lifelong reader and self proclaimed continuity guru, Grey is the Editor in Chief of Comics Nexus. Known for his love of Booster Gold, Spider-Girl (the real one), Stephanie Brown, and The Boys. Don't miss The Gold Standard.

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